Cash Back On Shopping You Were Doing Anyway

Shop. Click. Get cash back on the things you were buying anyway. How it works: click through Rakuten first, shop like normal, the store pays Rakuten, and they share it with you.

#ad — This page contains a referral link. If you sign up through it and shop, Rakuten pays me a bonus. It costs you nothing, and there is usually a signup bonus in it for you too.

I am not going to oversell this one, because it is a small thing that adds up rather than a clever trick.

Rakuten pays you back a percentage of what you spend at shops you were going to use anyway. That is it. That is the whole idea.

My very undramatic result

$65.

For remembering to click first.

That is the entire story. I am not about to tell you I found a secret wealth system. I clicked a link before I bought my things, and they sent me sixty-five dollars.

What it actually is

Here is the part nobody explains, and it is worth knowing because it tells you why the thing works at all.

Shops pay a commission to whoever sends them a customer. Rakuten sends them customers, collects that commission, and hands a share of it back to you.

So it is not a discount the shop is giving you, and it is not free money. It is somebody splitting their finder's fee with you. Once you see it that way it stops sounding too good to be true — because it is not. It is just a business model that happens to include you.

The one rule that decides whether you earn anything

You have to go through Rakuten before you shop. Not after.

Click through from Rakuten first, then buy exactly as you normally would. If you go straight to the shop and buy, there is no record that you came from Rakuten, and you get nothing.

That is the single reason most people sign up, forget, and decide it does not work. It works. They just went the wrong way round.

The honest limits

  • Cash back rates vary by store and can change, especially during promotional events, so check the current rate before you shop.
  • The money comes quarterly, not instantly. You forget about it and then a payment turns up, which is honestly the nicest way for it to arrive.
  • Not every shop is in it. Check before you assume.
  • If you return something, the cash back comes off too. Fair enough, but worth knowing.

If you want to try it

Sign up for Rakuten →

Sign up through that link and we both get a bonus once you have made a qualifying purchase. That is the referral part, and it is the reason this page exists — I would rather say so plainly than have you work it out for yourself.

Signup bonuses and cash back rates are set by Rakuten, vary by store, and change regularly. Whatever the current offer is, you will see it on their page before you join.